TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Old Party-Line Arrangements

Re: Old Party-Line Arrangements

Wesrock@aol.com
Tue, 8 Feb 2005 19:48:31 EST

In a message dated Tue, 08 Feb 2005 16:52:40 GMT,
Youremail@isp.mil.easynews.com (Tom Lager) writes:

> Billing info was sent to a tape punch at the end of the call.
> Tapes were "read" once per week in small offices, daily in the big
> offices, and 90 column cards were created for shipment to the data
> center where bills were produced. The C.O. was a noisy place then.

This reminds me many years ago when a Bell 5XB with AMA about 60 miles
from the accounting office sent the wide yellow tapes (no conversion
to punch cards) to the nearest accounting office by a package express
company. Once the box never arrived and apparently fell off the
truck. As in most such shipments, the carrier's liability was limited
to $50 unless a high value was declared and paid for.

There was an immediate hue and cry that every such shipment have the
full value declared and the excess value fee paid.

Cooler heads prevailed, and the matter was studied. The value of the
calls on the lost AMA tapes was estimated at between $5,000 and
$6,000. There had never been any other tapes lost since AMA offices
were first installed in Oklahoma, and paying for the full value on all
such shipments would amount to, as I recall, $500,000 a year.

The idea of paying for the full value on all of them was hastily
dropped.

Wes Leatherock
wesrock@aol.com

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